We Fall Down

[JoeC]

Most of you know the song "We Fall Down." I've reproduced the lyrics here for your conveinence:

Cursing every step of the way, he bore a heavy load
To the market ten miles away, the journey took its toll
And every day he passed a monastery's high cathedral walls
And it made his life seem meaningless and small

And he wondered how it would be to live in such a place
To be warm, well fed and at peace; to shut the world away

So when he saw a priest who walked, for once, beyond the iron gate
He said, 'Tell me of your life inside that place...'
And the priest replied...

We fall down, we get up
We fall down, we get up
We fall down, we get up
And the saints are just the sinners
Who fall down and get up

Disappointment followed him home; he'd hoped for so much more
But he saw himself in a light he had never seen before

Cause if the priest who fell could find the Grace of God to be enough
Then there must be some hope for the rest of us
There must be some hope left for us, 'cause…

Notice the line "We fall down and we get up." Beautiful, inspiring prose, but what does it imply? It implies a cycle of falling down and getting back up. Where's the victory?

Also notice "And the saints are just the sinners who fall down and get up." But! Is that all a saint is? Just a sinner who gets up after falling down? NO!!! A saint is a redeemed child of God, empowered from on high, cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, and MORE THAN A CONQUEROR!

Case in point: Don't just listen to lyrics, analyze lyrics. You might be accepting a flawed image of yourself (as I did with this song).

[blessed]

Shocking.... I used to like that song.

[Chelles]

I don't think I know that song....

[TommyLewis]

I've always had a completely different interpretation of this song. I see the man walking by the monastery as representative of each of us. We sometimes look at other people(the priest) and think that their life must be perfect, or at least better than our own. The priest tells him no, I'm no better than you are, I fall down and get up every day, just like you do. The point is that each of us fall every day, no matter how holy we may appear to others. Ultimately, we all must rely on the grace of God.
I also dont believe that the song implies acceptance of a cycle of failure. Rather, it proposes determination to keep pressing the battle, no matter how many times we fail. Proverbs 24:16 says "For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again." It doesn't say the righteous man will never fall...It says the righteous man will get back up when he does fall.
Wether we like to admit it or not, until we get out of these bodies, we will make mistakes, we will slip up. The point of the song is to encourage us by letting us know that we aren't alone...everyone falls at one point or another, but we don't have to accept defeat. The failure doesn't mean we aren't God's children. The grace of God is sufficient for each of us, no matter how many times we mess up, no matter how many times we fall, to get back up and keep walking.

[Babyruth]

I see what you mean Joe, but I always took it this way, as humans, we do fall, you can't deny that. But, we get right back up! That's how I took it.

[joris]

heh, I was at first thinking of another song
I can't deny now and then I'm getting tired of myself, now fighting hard and then next just falling flat out, with no power to fight; oh well;
I wouldn't describe life with God like that, though; if it were just for the fighting and falling I wouldn't be christian -- I'm christian for God so loves me

[marichino_freedom]

i'm not too familiar with this song, but i agree that i dont see the constant cycle of failure....its describing what happens in our lives (because truthfully, falling sometimes is unavoidable, at least on our parts, because we are human)

[JoeC]

Okay, I can accept Tommy's interpretation of the first line (albeit with some trepidation).

However, how do you all react to the second line I mentioned? This is the one that gets me the most. To say that a Saint is just a sinner who gets up after falling down isn't accurate in the least. Poetically, it sounds fine. It's a beautiful idea that gives me a fuzzy feeling. But I don't think it's Biblically sound.

[joris]

many times I hear quotes like - we are not sinners anymore; we are holy children of God, which happen to sin now and then; where the main difference is that 'sinner' is identity; we got another identity, our identify in Christ

[AlanaH]

I personally have never liked the song becuase the words "monastary" and "priest" imply a Catholic or Anglican point of view...and it is quite a flawed song...
Just my 0.02...

[JoeC]

Yeah, I have to wince whenever I hear them setting the priest up as an exemplary Christian... "My goodness, if HE falls, then there must be some hope for the rest of us." I'm sure there are well meaning people in the priesthood, but after the whole fiasco with the Catholic priests here in the States, it's kinda hard to think of them in the way the song seems to frame them. But I liked the song depsite that until a good friend of mine pointed out the error.

[Babyruth]

I do agree it's a pretty Catholic song. My grandma's Greek Orthodox, which is almost the exact same, (sssh! Don't tell her that!) and it definately reminds me of that. I agree with you Joe, the second line, "the Saint is just the sinner..." is not very Biblically sound. However, I still like my interpretation of it. Haven't listened to it for ages though!

[TommyLewis]

Caution...I was basically thinking things through as I was writing...hopefully this makes at least a little sense. Also, when confronted with a topic like this, I tend to switch into "writer mode." This results in some excessively lengthy posts, probably with somewhat tortured syntax...I will not be offended if you choose to skim this, or skip it altogether...

Not all priests who live in monasteries are Catholic. Even if they were, that's irrelevant. The priest is symbolic...you can replace him with whatever makes you feel comfortable... i.e. A young man sees his pastor at church every weekend and thinks about how much better his pastor's Christian walk must be than his own...So one day he gets up his courage and asks him about it, and his pastor tells him "Son, I am just like you...I make mistakes, I accept God's grace, I get up, I keep pressing the battle." The point is, you do not have to consider priests as holy to get the meaning behind the verse.
I'm still wrestling with the other line in question. Frankly, I have been wrestling with this line for 3 years or so, ever since I first heard the song. I think we all accept the idea that we are sinners saved by grace, nothing more, nothing less. We can throw high sounding lingo around, but when we boil it down, scripture is clear that we have all sinned and came short of the glory of God. If we have sinned, we are sinners. Even if we have never done anything wrong, we are born into sin, by cause of Adam's fall. We need the grace of God. This is the essence of the song, and of the line is question. The clergy, the laity, everyone falls, but the grace of God is sufficient for us all. Not a one of us is any better than the sinner on the street by our own power or ability. It's just grace that allows us to get up and keep walking when we fall.
I understand the struggle with the phrase however. We feel like it somehow trivializes our relationship with God, like it doesn't encapsulate the full depth of that relationship. That may be so, but I don't know that it needs to within the context of this song. If we don't look at the song as some sort of all encompassing definition of our relationship with God, but rather see it as an examination of a certain specific aspect of said relationship, maybe it works better. That being said, I still struggle with the use of the word "just" in that line.
I still believe the essence of the song is that no one is better than any other of his or her human merit. We all fall. Some stay down; others recognize that God's grace is sufficient, and get up and keep walking. The only way we can continue to get back up is by the grace of God. Thus the grace of God is all that separates saint from sinner. I tend to agree...

[JoeC]

I can tell that your looking at the song seriously. And I read your whole post. ;)

If people use the song as encouragement and interpret it in such a way that it fits the Biblical bill for the Christian, perhaps that's fine. But I found my self falling and saying, "Well, as the song goes, we fall down and we get up. A Christian is just a sinner we gets back up." It helped to perpetuate a cycle in my life, giving excuse for a test I should have been overcoming. Instead I just kept on flunking the same test again and again, using the excuse "we fall down, and we get up".

The Christian breaks the cycle. We might fall everyday, but our failures are supposed to be getting less and less, our areas of victory more and more.

[AlanaH]

Thank you Joe for saying what I wish I could have said....
We do fall, and we do get back up, but we cannot use anything as an excuse to do so.

[AndrewMichael]

The Christian breaks the cycle. We might fall everyday, but our failures are supposed to be getting less and less, our areas of victory more and more.

Brother Donny preached on breaking the cycle, taking more of ending the cycle of denominalizing and getting away from the Word as everyone (nearly) did after every messenger. I like that, break the routine. Amen and amen...

[TommyLewis]

Of course we never want to use anything as an excuse for failure. As soon as we are content with failure, in our Christian walk or any other area of our life, we stop growing. We should never stop growing until the day we get out of here...
On the other hand, we should never allow failure to cause us to quit, to give up. We have to keep pressing the battle no matter how many times we fail.
Obviously, we haven't been differing on ideas or concepts in this thread. We just have different interpretations of the song...and that is part of what art is all about...it can mean different things to different people...

[Babyruth]

Amen! I agree with you all. I was going to post something else, but Tommy already did. Great minds think alike. :)

[Jezz]

The thing to remember is that you cannot be perfected in the flesh, while we are still in these bodies, so there will be falling down but we do get up again, always. That is why the blood of God was neccesary to redeem us, if we could become perfected in the flesh then there would have been no need of the Lamb sacrifice. When we get our earthly glorified bodies then we will truely never stumble again.

[AlanaH]

Brother Donny preached on breaking the cycle, taking more of ending the cycle of denominalizing and getting away from the Word as everyone (nearly) did after every messenger. I like that, break the routine. Amen and amen...

A brother came to our church and preached about breaking cycles too, although it was along a slightly different line. But it was amazing...will talk about it more in a while...

[Angelo]

The Christian breaks the cycle. We might fall everyday, but our failures are supposed to be getting less and less, our areas of victory more and more.
Therefore, falling down is no longer the cause of sin, but laying our crowns at the feet of Jesus.

[JoeC]

Come again?

[AlanaH]

I think he's trying to say that we fall down to lay our crowns at Jesus' feet....if I'm not mistaken.

[marichino_freedom]

i can see that

[Angelo]

Come again?
I'm sorry if I was confusing. The appropriate reason for a Christian to fall down now is not because of sin, but because we are laying down our crowns (victories) at the feet of our Lord.

[AndrewMichael]

I'm sorry if I was confusing. The appropriate reason for a Christian to fall down now is not because of sin, but because we are laying down our crowns (victories) at the feet of our Lord.

Psalms 108:1
1O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.

David gave even his own glory to the Lord, as we all ought to. I love that verse...